Birthday season

As if May - now being the last month of school before summer - wasn't busy enough, we have two birthdays as well. Cue present buying, wrapping, cake making and party organising.

Evan opted for a bowling party at a bowling alley called 'Main Event'. We invited his class and ended up with 14 kids, it was crazy but Evan loved it. He also took in doughnuts for his class on his birthday, and came out of school with his birthday hat and sticker on, which he'd worn all day.

Alice took her 3 best friends to a nail spa, dinner followed by a sleepover at our house, then swimming at the community pool the next day. She also took the plunge and had her ears pierced, at Claire's, just like all her friends in the UK.

The kids have had a great time, Rob & I are exhausted!

Community pool opens

Not having a pool in our rental house, we have been looking forward to the opening of the Timarron community pools for the summer season. Today was the day, and despite the storm and tornado warnings for the DFW area, we decided to go to the pool anyway. Under ominous clouds the kids and Rob went in the water; it was too cold for me, but then it has to be getting on for 100F for me to get in a pool. Before long the heavens opened, but the kids didn't mind, they were wet anyway!

Just us mad enough to go, it would seem

And then the rain came.

Here we go again...

I'd better make a start filling these I suppose. Sigh.

Buying a house

We are homeowners again, we signed all the final paperwork this morning so it is now officially ours! We're not moving in yet though as we're leasing the house back to the previous owners for a couple of weeks whilst they complete their move. This suits us as the year rental we took on the house we're currently living in doesn't finish until the end of June.

The property purchasing process is very different here in Texas compared to the UK. The buyer submits a full contract, which is prepared by their 'realtor' (estate agent), detailing the offer price and completion date to the seller. The seller then peruses the contract and decides whether it is acceptable or not, signing it if it is. At this point the buyer has to make a deposit of 1% of the home value to the seller as a guarantee of the sale. There is then an 'option' period of 10-14 days in which the buyer can have an inspection (survey) of the house and any renegotiation or changes to the contract can be made, or the buyer can be released from the contract and get their deposit money back if they wish. After the option period expires the buyer will lose their deposit if they pull out of the contract or their financing falls through, making it very important to have a mortgage offer already pre-approved by the lender before submitting a contract on a property. The whole process can take as little as 30 days to complete.

The property market here in Southlake is so hot that within a day or two of a property being listed it has several contracts submitted to it and one of them is usually accepted within a few days, so you've got to move fast. In fact many properties are sold before they even hit the market through realtors knowing which properties will be coming up. You would think that such a strong property market would make prices spiral rapidly upwards, but mortgage lenders keep a lid on the prices by cautiously appraising the value of property and refusing to lend on homes they believe to be overvalued.

We bank with Wells Fargo and getting our mortgage pre-approved through this huge paperwork machine was not without it's challenges. Rob spent hours finding and sending them documents and information. Most Americans I have spoken to have also found this difficult as they scrutinise your finances down to every nitty gritty detail, requiring a paper trail for anything financial and of course our international move made this much more complicated. Our application languished for some time in the 'wrong department' ie one that couldn't handle tax information from the UK inland revenue. Suffice to say there were a couple of houses we didn't stand a chance of getting as the pre-approval didn't come through on time, frustrating when you have already sold your previous property.

In the end we were very lucky as we escaped the usual bun-fight that is the Southlake property market. One of our friends is a realtor and she knew of a potential property fitting our criteria. For a previous client she had done a neighbourhood leaflet-drop asking if anyone was looking to sell their home. Our seller responded, but the house wasn't suitable for that client at that time but fortunately for us he was still willing to sell. We viewed it, liked it and decided to go for it. After a little negotiation we submitted a contract on the 18th of April, just over a month ago. Since then we have had more paperwork and endless phone calls by Rob and our realtor to various departments at Wells Fargo to push them along with the mortgage underwriting. We also had to arrange homeowners insurance and have an inspection completed on the house.

The inspection was incredibly thorough, the inspector checking the structure and all the systems in the house from the heating/air con, plumbing, electrics down to the odd light not working and door latches not closing properly. I had to go the house to meet the inspector so he could go through his report with me and our realtor. Although nothing major came up on the inspection report, our seller agreed to fix all the minor issues in the house. He gave us a tour last Monday, not only showing us the remediations but also how to manage the pool, air con, sprinkler system etc. He also gave us a printout of how to use everything, when to service, and who to call if anything goes wrong, he couldn't have been more helpful, especially as much of it is new to us. On top of this the seller pays for a year warranty on the home and appliances should anything go wrong, so at least we know there will be no major expenses for the first year.

So now we just have to actually move house, again. As excited as we are to get in to the new house, the thought of packing everything up again, driving it two miles down the road - which has got to be easier than shipping it over the Atlantic, right? - and unpacking it does not fill me with glee.

No house photos until we move in, but here's one
of the grapes growing well in our new 'yard'

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Heatherglen Block Party

Our street, Heatherglen Drive, forms a big U-shape with another street called Caroline Lane. Every year in May the residents get together for a block (or street) party, which involved food, games and two 'bounce houses' for the kids. Luckily for Evan there are four other first graders in the block and one of them is his best mate Ethan, so he was as happy as Larry. We already have some lovely friends on the street, and it was great to meet a couple of new families who have recently moved in.  This has been a very friendly place to start our new life in Texas and we will miss it when we move in to our new house. Oh well, we'll just have to gatecrash next year's block party!

May Madness

Rockenbaugh's May Madness is legendary as the best day EVER amongst the school kids so David and Evan were really excited when the day finally arrived. The recent stormy weather had meant that the day hung in the balance for a while but the decision was made to go ahead and luckily the forecast rain didn't come. The day certainly lived up to expectation with 45 stations of fun activities: bouncy castles, water games, sports, lots of other fair type games and a refreshment stand with snacks and drinks. The boys loved it, Evan's favourites were the water activities, whilst David predictably loved the soccer stations.

Rockenbaugh's May Madness 2015

Let's Jam, it's our band!

Fourth grade is the oldest year group in Rockenbaugh, so this is their final term before moving up to Eubanks Intermediate School. Their swansong is a big musical performance program which this year was called 'Lets Jam, It's our Band'. Each of the five fourth grade classes had a music genre to depict: motown, reggae, country, blues, and surf rock. They sang a classic song from the category with the overall message being that all music is good and we can enjoy it all. The show was organised and directed by the school music teacher, Mrs Smith, and she delegated the task of stage design and costuming to a group of parent volunteers, of which I was one. It was great to get together with a group of mums and get to know them better whilst ironing on, gluing, sticking and getting all their outfits ready. The kids really loved performing their show and singing their songs, and threw themselves in to it, a fantastic evening was had by all.

Stormy Spring

This has been the wettest Spring in DFW for fourteen years, with over 9 inches in April and May so far. I've lost track of the number of times people have said to me that they've never known a spring so wet. It should feel like we've brought a bit of Wales with us to Texas but water has come out of the sky on a Texan scale. Warm, sometimes muggy, weather, with temperatures up in the late 20's, has been punctuated with thunder storms, lightning and tremendous downpours. Some nights have been something akin to living in the stomach of a hungry giant with the thunder rumbling constantly, and lightning flashing repeatedly like you see in films. Rivers of water have run down the streets into the six-foot wide, half foot high storm drains that are cut into the kerb, whilst the creeks, dry in the summer months, are swollen.

Last weekend saw a big storm hit north Texas with devastating tornadoes touching down in Cisco and Van on opposite sides of the metroplex. In Southlake it was windy enough to wake us, and we dashed out in to the maelstrom to get my car in the garage alongside Rob's, as golf-ball sized hail has been known to accompany these storms. Within 45 minutes the wind had all but vanished. Southlake escaped with a few trees blown down and our garden was once again covered in tree debris.

The locals are torn between complaining about the rain and relief, as the water is much needed. The last few years have seen low rainfall and a period of drought with strict water restrictions. Our nearest reservoir, Grapevine Lake, was only two thirds full this time last year but in the last month the level has risen by nearly 20 feet. The difference is spectacular; shore side picnic areas are flooded and fishermen, who were struggling to get theirs boats out on to the lake because the water level was so low, are now finding it difficult because the levels are so high. Still, I dare say it won't be long until we are baking in the Texas summer sun and the sprinklers are on again.

Texas drought maps in 2014 and 2015

Remarkable water rise in Grapevine Lake, 22nd March (left) and 12th May (right).

Mother's Day

Mother's Day in the UK is in March, so I sent cards to my Mum and Mother-in-law a couple of months ago. In America it's in May, this coming Sunday, so today I started the day with Muffins with Mom's at Alice's school, which was breakfast coffee, muffins and fruit in the school canteen with the kids before lessons began. This afternoon, the first graders at Rockenbaugh held a Mom's Day Tea. We assembled in the cafeteria and the kids all sang songs about 'Moms' which was very cute. Afterwards we went to their classrooms and were presented with brilliant books and pictures they had made for us. There were refreshments too, drinks and biscuits but no cup of tea, that really would have been something to blog about in this land of coffee!

First graders singing about, and pointing at, their awesome moms.

Turtle Run

Just when I get used to living in Texas and it all feels completely normal, I go for a morning run and see these little fellas popping their heads out of every lake. They are turtley awesome!